Bill Moyers: There is no tomorrow

Printer version: Bill Moyers: There is no tomorrow

i've always liked the quietness of bill moyers. like my father, he always came across like a man with ethics and integrity. so it's particularly difficult to see an articulate, gentle, good man so effing depressed with the state of the world.

if only he wasn't right...

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The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience - Books & Culture

so it seems christians aren't so very different from the outside world. huh. we're wracked with racism, materialism, selfishness, divorce, sexual naughtiness and such. (we even have more abortions than non-christians.)

what's up with that?
(more later. i'm at work and i have to get things done or i'll feel bad.)

Screed: again with the eggs in their baskets...

Screed: again with the eggs in their baskets...

my favorite alter ego has another post about a bill similar to the one defeated in virginia.

a much later post: women as moral agents: why doesn't the right get it?

Recasting Republicans as the Party of Civil Rights

Recasting Republicans as the Party of Civil Rights

wow. this totally defies my own definition of 'ahistoricism.'
the mind boggles.

and, i bet the democrats will totally leave them to this.

exactly what we need

Yahoo! News - 'Braveheart' Becomes Role Model for Christian Men

this is perfect.
let's roll back human history several millenia and use that as a model of modern relationships.

because the dark ages were so good for women...

plague? instant vanishing?

Protest against gay marriage invokes God

i wonder what form they'd like God's intercession to come in.
locusts? the instant, spontaneous combustion of every homosexual and heterosexual ally in alberta?

i'd like religious homophobes to be honest. just say it. don't hide in churchy language; don't cover yourself in smirky platitudes about what scripture says or whatever. just say it: i want all gay people to go away. say it: i don't want them living near me, teaching my kids, working where i work. say it: i wish something would happen to make them go away, they disgust me.

open your mouth and let your bigotry fly out of you like a cloud of flies. you'll be more honest and you'll feel better saying it.

now, whether it's christian to say those things...well, that's something else entirely different.

rolling stone: is nothing secular?

CNN.com - Rolling Stone decides to accept Bible ad - Jan 25, 2005

i've become a bitter christian. last night at dinner, i ignored the problematic guy who, last month, said to me that it's ok for wal mart to exploit its workers because a little work is better than no work. i ignored him the whole night and then felt a little bad about it before i went to sleep.

and now my roommate's copy of rolling stone that we read in the bathroom, is going to advertise the new hip bible. sigh. i don't want to read an advertisement for the bible in rolling stone. is it wrong of me to not want to read about the new hip language of the holy book while i'm on the toilet reading about the kinks? is it?? isn't it bad enough the secular is getting all tarted up in religious poofiness all over the place??

(yes, my rhetorical skills have completely left me i'm so frustrated.)

church: over here.
secular: way the hell over there.

sex

Feminary: My Beloved Waits for Me

the feminarian has started a project over on her blog - personal stories from christian women about sex and sexuality. they're fascinating stories because they so mirror my own. i tried to start a project like this with black christian women and it died a slow, cramped awkward death.

(lesson: african american christian women are even more repressed about sex than we think.)

but check it out and read what your sisters and mothers and girlfriends really think.

not shrill, just other

this is a piece by rev. debra haffner on abortion as a moral decision. it's a relief to read after months of masculine blowhards who make my blood boil.

USATODAY.com - And the word is 'update'

USATODAY.com - And the word is 'update'

so if you look at the little box with the changes in language what's the big deal, especially with the hebrews scripture? the meaning is still the same.

what could possibly be wrong with changing gender-specific language? hm?

USATODAY.com - And the word is 'update'

USATODAY.com - And the word is 'update'

so if you look at the little box with the changes in language what's the big deal, especially with the hebrews scripture? the meaning is still the same.

what could possibly be wrong with changing gender-specific language? hm?

i ain't no ho: essence mag and hip hop

Take Back The Music

thanks to Girl in the Locker Room!, i found this discussion of hip hop's representation of black female sexuality and black women to be fascinating. it should be interesting to see how the discussion unfolds over the next year. already, the comments section is lively.

i don't listen to hip hop - i think i missed the wave when it all started. i was in high school and i just thought it sounded silly (i was very bougie back then, i realize that now) so now i haven't really developed a taste for it. but i did like the socially conscious artists (don't aske me to remember names.) now, whenever i see a video or hear a lyric i usually just cringe.

i'm having a bill cosby moment: don't we know better? after we've climbed out of slavery, where our bodies were literally traded upon, haven't we learned anything?

i refuse to see this as a 'values' argument, in the white republican sense. black sexuality in america has always been corrupted and 'other' from standard white middle class sexuality. (you'd best learn your black history before you comment.) the solution to wrenching hip hop from the pimp-ho paradigm isn't necessarily to impose an image of the 'lady' on us black women. ida b. wells was a lady - and she was loud, ferocious and masculine. harriet jacobs was a 'lady' - and she consciously 'gave' her body to a white lover to save herself from her slave master. in other words, don't try to impose another patriarchal definition of femininity on top of us when it never applied (and was totally problematic) in the first place.

some (even some of my friends) have thought that since the dancers choose this profession, then it's all part of the commodities game - and it smacks of highhandedness to say to these women that they shouldn't represent themselves this way. perhaps these women are exercising agency. perhaps these roles as background dancers, hos and hot tubbers is promoting a sense of sexual empowerment.

give me a break. empowerment only happens when you're in control of your image and representation. who's in charge here? essence's argument, and that of most black women, isn't with the women in these videos. it's with the men who make them. it's with the men who write the lyrics. this is the point: black women are a blank in the entire process - directors, artists, producers, etc. our issue is with the men - our brothers, friends and fathers who choose to represent us this way.

the whole jiggling ass-thing, frankly, is pissing us off.

happy birthday, martin luther king jr!

Editorial: Social Security/Blacks get more, not less, from it

it's an ironic juxtaposition, no?

it makes you wonder. could the fact that people of color benefit more from it be one of the reasons the social security system suddenly needs to be be dismantled? hm? could it??

for once, i'd like my paranoia to be completely without merit.

i'm back!

i was away for a while - bustling around, acting important and really just taking up space.

but now i'm back. there are all sorts of thoughts rolling around, in light of recent world events, about faith, disasters, God's presence and such, but there is also the stuff about art, boys and my date tonight mixing in with those higher thoughts, too.

so that means i'll probably be posting later tonight.

(and sigh. i've already broken a resolution - i blew off church sunday to have brunch with a boy. bad churchgal, bad!)